Is a dedicated sound card worth it?

[Shaqo_Wyn]

So are they? What are the benefits? Any recommendations?

[SAV1OUR]

nope 

nope 

nope 

[Unhelpful]

nope 

nope 

nope 

WHOA WHOA WHOA!

Sometimes it is.

 

@Shaqo_Wyn if you have really bad onboard audio and simply need an amp a soundcard can be a good choice.

[SAV1OUR]

WHOA WHOA WHOA!

Sometimes it is.

 

@Shaqo_Wyn if you have really bad onboard audio and simply need an amp a soundcard can be a good choice.

well some times but most boards these days have pretty good audio and then the only time that you would have shitty audio is if you were to have a old build and even then the pci slot my not be compadable 

also edit look on our friend heres build hes using a asus hero ROG is known for having high end audio im pretty sure hes covered 

[AddonCustoms]

Nope.

[Unhelpful]

well some times but most boards these days have pretty good audio and then the only time that you would have shitty audio is if you were to have a old build and even then the pci slot my not be compadable 

also edit look on our friend heres build hes using a asus hero ROG is known for having high end audio im pretty sure hes covered 

Well yeah that's true, I'm just saying that it's unfair to say an absolute no.

[Rorgash]

only if you have headphones in the 300$+ range and even then, a amp/dac combo is better

[SAV1OUR]

Well yeah that's true, I'm just saying that it's unfair to say an absolute no.

i say no because i have yet to come across a situation where you would NEED a sound card most of the time audio from the mobo and a dac at most is fine 

[Kamina]

 

Sometimes.

[Unhelpful]

i say no because i have yet to come across a situation where you would NEED a sound card most of the time audio from the mobo and a dac at most is fine 

Well... Lets say somebody has a pentium 4 machine. They do absolutely zero gaming and aren't interested in upgrading, they do however listen to a lot of music and want to make it louder and sound less trashy. They don't want to spent $300. A sound card is a pretty good choice.

 

Actually that is the exact scenario that happened on the forums that caused linus to go on a 15-ish minute rant on the WAN show because everybody took a massive shameless crap on the guy without even once asking his pc spec.

[The Crazed Child]

It depends if you can tell the difference between onboard and a dedicated solution. I can't.

[SSL]

Soundcards typically have two major drawbacks.

 

One is electromagnetic interference from the other components in the PC case. This can take the form of audible static or other artifacts.

 

The other is that they often have high output impedance on the order of 10-30 ohms, which can cause damping factor problems with low impedance headphones. Enjoy distortion.

 

A soundcard might be useful for virtual surround or if you need to spend like $20 max to fix broken onboard audio.

 

Well... Lets say somebody has a pentium 4 machine. They do absolutely zero gaming and aren't interested in upgrading, they do however listen to a lot of music and want to make it louder and sound less trashy. They don't want to spent $300. A sound card is a pretty good choice.

 

Actually that is the exact scenario that happened on the forums that caused linus to go on a 15-ish minute rant on the WAN show because everybody took a massive shameless crap on the guy without even once asking his pc spec.

 

No, it's not. Good external DAC/amp combo units are available for as little as $40.

[Antistatic12]

Have a hearing test. then you will know if you should get one. If the results come back you have rubbish hearing abilities then just put that money towards another upgrade.
Not everyone benefits from high end Sound cards/ DACs/ headphones. Just as some people are incapable of seeing 3D.

As @SAV1OUR stated
I know some of the ASUS mobos like Maximus VII Hero have decent audio though. so that might be sufficient for you

[helping]

unless you need to fix broken onboard or don't have 2 square inches of space on your desk

9

9

9

 

Well... Lets say somebody has a pentium 4 machine. They do absolutely zero gaming and aren't interested in upgrading, they do however listen to a lot of music and want to make it louder and sound less trashy. They don't want to spent $300. A sound card is a pretty good choice.

 

Actually that is the exact scenario that happened on the forums that caused linus to go on a 15-ish minute rant on the WAN show because everybody took a massive shameless crap on the guy without even once asking his pc spec.

We handled that well IMO, despite what Linus said.

That lad said SO many outlandishly stupid things and refused to acknowledge the argument or attempt to reason or elaborate.

Anywhere else, I mean ANYWHERE else on the internet that thread would have been locked by page 2 or OP would have been getting death threats.

Honestly I'm still not even sure if that's was a troll or not.

If I remember correctly, there was an inadvertent contradiction made by attempting to justify some 30$ sound card on the WAN show.

It really was not handled well... At all. Not until people went back and edited their comments after the fact. It is still true that not a single person asked him what motherboard he had, whether he handled it well or not really isn't important, even if he wasn't a troll it still isn't that important. It was still handled really badly :\ not even necessarily by you, but the community did collectively shit on him.

It was bad, but compared to what it could have been, tame IMO. The thread should have never happened in the first place, and the attitude of the original poster was enough to get even myself riled up since I was one of the first to hurl flaming piles of dung at him. I try my best to seldom do this and keep in mind not everybody knows everything, but at a certain point I can't help but draw a line.

[SAV1OUR]

unless you need to fix broken onboard or don't have 2 square inches of space on your desk

9

9

9

coming from the guy who has a sound card  

[SSL]

Have a hearing test. then you will know if you should get one. If the results come back you have rubbish hearing abilities then just put that money towards another upgrade.

Not everyone benefits from high end Sound cards/ DACs/ headphones. Just as some people are incapable of seeing 3D.

As @SAV1OUR stated

I know some of the ASUS mobos like Maximus VII Hero have decent audio though. so that might be sufficient for you

 

Most motherboard made in the last few years have decent audio. Not even high-end boards.

[Unhelpful]

We handled that well IMO, despite what Linus said.

That lad said SO many outlandishly stupid things and refused to acknowledge the argument or attempt to reason or elaborate.

Anywhere else, I mean ANYWHERE else on the internet that thread would have been locked by page 2 or OP would have been getting death threats.

Honestly I'm still not even sure if that's was a troll or not.

It really was not handled well... At all. Not until people went back and edited their comments after the fact. It is still true that not a single person asked him what motherboard he had, whether he handled it well or not really isn't important, even if he wasn't a troll it still isn't that important. It was still handled really badly :\ not even necessarily by you, but the community did collectively shit on him.

[AnotherTechGuy]

.

[SSL]

It really was not handled well... At all. Not until people went back and edited their comments after the fact. It is still true that not a single person asked him what motherboard he had, whether he handled it well or not really isn't important, even if he wasn't a troll it still isn't that important. It was still handled really badly :\ not even necessarily by you, but the community did collectively shit on him.

 

Sounds like a good time, shame I missed it.

[Shaqo_Wyn]

Thanks for all the answers guys.

[Mateyyy]

Probably you shouldn't listen to me, I don't know. I never actually had any audiophile grade headphones, my best headset is the Vengeance 1500v2, that I have now. My other headphones, cover your eyes, were some 10-25$ shitty headphones that I could find, because in my old rig, the motherboard had a problem and after a few weeks, the audio cable would break, because of the motherboard. Anyways, I think that the 1500v2 sound awesome, and it's just a gaming headset. More likely, if you have some audiophile grade headphones, those might sound better, but I never actually even got to listen some music with any  :lol:. I really think that onboard audio is fine, especially if you have something like an ROG or a G1 board..